The present invention relates to an optical page identification system for an interactive, electronic system using books. More particularly, the present invention relates to an autonomous, optical page-identification system that communicates to the system controller the identity of the page that is viewable by the user.
Certain interactive, electronic systems allow a child to activate electronic speech, sound and lights by pointing to words or images on the cover and pages of multi-page books used with a reader or base unit. The principle components of the typical system are the base unit housing system electronics, one or more books each removably mountable in the base unit, for an example in a book well, and a read only memory (“ROM”), either within the base unit or within cartridges removably connected with the base unit and storing software associated with the content of the books. In addition to book-based activity, letters of the alphabet, numerals or other graphics may be provided on the upwardly facing surface of the base unit to allow alphabet, number or graphics based learning or game play when a book is not present in the unit.
The conventional hardware for the implementing the aforementioned systems is generally not user friendly. A hardwired stylus or difficult to press pressure sensitive switches are provided to identify the page being viewed and to select the interactive content on the viewed page. This conventional hardware usually requires an undesirable amount of assistance, instruction and practice before a child can knowledgeably and properly use the system, particularly pre-school children. For example, to identify a currently viewable page or to detect a page turn, a child must be instructed to recognize and then touch on the page a uniquely positioned printed identification icon, such as a graphic having a particular geometric shape or an easily recognizable key word such as the word “Go”. The systems are also error prone due to the positional certainty of the pages of the book on the reader. The systems are also prone to user induced errors such as failure to identify or properly select the page identification icon before interacting with a page or turning of multiple pages at once or the partial turning of a page. Accordingly, the current page identification and synchronization methods employed by conventional book interaction systems result in a large percentage of synchronization errors for young users.
An autonomous page identification system that communicates to the system controller the identity of the page that is viewable by the user without requiring user intervention provides a user friendly system. More particularly, an autonomous page identification system reducing or eliminating page synchronization errors will significantly increase the value of other, conventional aspects of such systems to users particularly pre-school users.